Defending the Senate

Matt Canter’s fight for a Democratic majority

Matt Canter has led political campaigns at the
local, state and national level across the country. Now, as Deputy Executive
Director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), Canter guides
campaigns for the U.S. Senate, working to maintain the Democratic majority. In
2012, Canter helped Democrats defend 23 Senate seats and gain two additional
seats despite long odds. Born in Wisconsin, Canter graduated from Whitefish Bay
High School and UW-Madison. Canter now lives in Washington, D.C., with his
wife, Kyle, their son Sam, who was born this month, and their dog Rudy.

How did a kid from
Whitefish Bay end up playing a major role in all of the highly contested U.S.
Senate races?

Passion for the work, tolerance for late
nights and, certainly, luck. What’s helped me is building trusting
relationships with the people on the campaign trail. The majority of
people who work in politics are there for all the right reasons, and you learn
everything you need to know from the people around you.

Almost everyone I know and respect in politics
started out as the most junior staffer in the room. I did that—on a number of
campaigns—and then slowly gained more and more responsibility. The key is never getting
too comfortable. It’s the competitive, hard-fought races that matter most and
offer opportunity for personal growth. If it’s easy, then it’s not worth doing.

The Senate races looked pretty daunting after
the Democrats got trounced in the 2010 elections. But keeping the majority and
electing great new senators was the inspiration to do it.

What exactly does someone
in your position do?

A lot of talking! I’m part of a cast of
hundreds working to win Senate races and keep a Democratic majority. My job is
to be a resource for campaigns and the national press. I spend most of my day
working on our competitive races, helping campaigns hire communications teams
and working with the people on the ground to push the campaign’s message every
day. I also spend time talking to national media about the Senate landscape
and, of course, pushing back on the well-oiled Republican attack machine here
in Washington.

You had a very
interesting 2012 election cycle where the pundits were predicting that the
Democrats would lose control of the U.S. Senate, but instead the Democrats
gained two seats. What were your biggest challenges?

We had to defend 23 seats, including
seven open seats where the Democratic senators were retiring. Four of the seats
we had to defend were in states that President Barack Obama was not even
contesting and another half-dozen were in presidential battlegrounds. But the
single biggest challenge was the flood of outside money from right-wing groups
like Karl Rove’s Crossroads and the Chamber of Commerce. They spent over $200
million against our candidates. Most of that money came from organizations that
don’t have to disclose their donors. Fortunately Republicans’ animosity for
President Obama clouded their judgment, and they spent nearly all their money
attacking Obama and trying to nationalize each race. But many voters make their
decision in Senate races independently of their choice for president. We
focused our resources on defining the choice between the two people on the
ballot. Our organization, which discloses all its donors and abides by strict
limits on the amount people can contribute, spent more than $80 million to help
Democratic candidates across the country, including more than $7.2 million here
in Wisconsin to help Tammy Baldwin defeat Tommy Thompson.

What were your greatest
successes?

Our goal was to hold the majority, and in the
end we surpassed our own expectations by winning three Republican-held seats
and increasing the number of Democratic senators to 55. That said, our greatest
success was not the number of races we won, but the quality of candidates we
helped elect. Look at Tammy Baldwin, Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, Heidi
Heitkamp in North Dakota—a race no one thought we could win. We elected more
women than ever before in history. Women are still dramatically
underrepresented in Congress and I believe having more women around the table
in Washington matters a lot.

After the Republican
losses, there has been a lot of finger-pointing among the Republican factions.
Where do you see the Republican Party going over the next few election cycles?

The public is justifiably frustrated with the
entire system and anyone associated with it, so both political parties are
struggling, but I would much rather it be us than them. The big money wing of
the Republican Party—oil companies, Wall Street, the Chamber—and the tea party
are at war with each other, and they are pushing all Republicans further to the
right. It’s a particular challenge for Republicans in Senate races, but I
expect the party will be able to unify behind a presidential candidate in 2016
and be right back in the mix. That's why we need to be focused on the
fundamentals: recruiting strong candidates and running great campaigns around
the issues that people care about.

Poll

A Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission panel upheld the firing of former Milwaukee Police officer Christopher Manney for violating department rules last April when he encountered Dontre Hamilton before fatally shooting him. Do you agree with the commission’s decision?